8 May 2025

Amazon says its Vulcan picking robot can handle about 75% of stocked item types

Robotics and artificial muscles
AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.

What was demonstrated

Amazon reports that its Vulcan robot, which uses force-feedback sensors and a camera, can pick and stow approximately 75% of the various types of items it stores at its fulfilment centres. Amazon describes its speed as comparable to that of front-line employees. When Vulcan cannot move a specific item, it can ask a human partner to take over. Amazon names its Spokane and Hamburg sites as places where Vulcan is focused on picking from the top rows of inventory pods. These are company statements, not results from an independent test.

Why it matters

If the figure holds in live operations, a robot could handle a large share of the products a warehouse stores, with people taking over only the picks it cannot make. This bears on how much manual picking large fulfilment centres may need over the next few years.

Caveats

  • The 75% figure is Amazon's own estimate of item types it can handle. It is not a measured pick success rate, and the announcement gives no error rate or speed figure.
  • The announcement does not say what the remaining item types involve, how often a pick needs human help, or how many Vulcan units are in use.
  • The Amazon page does not show a publication date. The date used here is from press coverage dated 8 May 2025, and the announcement is undated in its primary source.

Technology profiles

Sources

  1. company announcement
    Introducing Vulcan: Amazon's first robot with a sense of touch
    Alex Davies. Amazon (About Amazon), May 2025.
  2. news
    Amazon's Vulcan robot uses force sensing to stow items
    Mike Oitzman. Automated Warehouse, 8 May 2025.

Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.